I’ve decided to add a rumour tag to this piece because the GameTrailers member ‘Joakim Mogren’ has uploaded the above clip to the users section, rather than the official channels. It may mean that the video is unofficial.

We’ve emailed Konami for confirmation but as with most virals, if it’s true they won’t confirm it, so we’ll get back to you with more when we can. Stay tuned.

Also the morse code in the clip has been cracked by YouTuber AesopsEpisoden.

Does this mean the men in the video are configuring the world’s first VR simulation? Is Snake inside the simulation to help him combat post-traumatic stress after his car crash? It would explain all of the freaky stuff we’ve seen in the initial Phantom Pain trailer.

Read on for more clues from the trailer.

ORIGINAL STORY:

About halfway through there is a subliminal blip, that VG247 reader Dragon246 has kindly transcribed for us.

Well, as Dragon quite rightly points out, the military base seen in the first Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes trailer was called Camp Omega, so there’s your first common thread. The morse code at the end of the text simply reads “?” when translated.

Second, note the medical and psychological report at the end. In the first Phantom Pain trailer, we see what looks like Snake suffering a car crash, which presumably leaves him badly injured, hence the clip largely taking place in a hospital.

There’s also talk of “Psychological stress”, which would explain all the mad images in the hospital, of white petals – a nod to The Boss in MGS3 – images of giant flaming whales, the bosses horse, Volgin on fire, and what appears to be The Sorrow or Psycho Mantis floating in the background.

The text also says, “VR PROGRAM: PHANTOM_PAIN.MME”, so could the events in The Phantom pain trailer just be a VR training exercise to help Snake battle the post-traumatic stress suffered in battle? The rumoured 1970s-80s setting may render that technically impossible, but with Kojima – sorry, Joakim – anything’s possible, right?

So, is this Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes? Let us know what you think below, and be sure to check out our Ground Zeroes all access page, which is where I’m tracking every single rumour, fact, tweet, image and video for Kojima’s project.

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2013/03/15/the-phantom-pain-video-interview-confirms-fox-engines-involvement/feed/10Phantom Pain developer Joakim Mogren appears, covered in bandageshttp://www.vg247.com/2013/03/14/phantom-pain-developer-joakim-mogren-appears-covered-in-bandages/
http://www.vg247.com/2013/03/14/phantom-pain-developer-joakim-mogren-appears-covered-in-bandages/#commentsThu, 14 Mar 2013 22:17:23 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=349276If Konami really wants us to believe Joakim Mogren and his Swedish studio Moby Dick are real, they’re going to have to do better than front a bloke with his face covered in bandages.

Joakim Mogren, whose first name is a suspiciously perfect anagram of “Kojima”, met with GTTV’s Geoff Keighley for an interview today, as promised.

Keighley, who hosted the Spike Awards where Moby Dick’s The Phantom Pain was announced, posted an Instagram of the man he interviewed. Joakim will also appear in video footage on GTTV later today.

The man’s bandaged face is eerily similar to that of a character who assist the protagonist in The Phantom Pain trailers, which makes it all taste like a marketing stunt, but one thing’s for sure: while Joakim Mogren may be an actor playing a role, the man shown here definitely isn’t Hideo Kojima.

Keighley, who of all journalists would be expected to be in on a joke or stunt if there is one, seems genuinely a bit confused by the whole affair.

“Joakim Mogren was a man I’m pretty sure I’ve not met before. He did show some new images on his iPad,” he tweeted.

“The guy was definitely not Kojima. He legitimately seemed Sweedish. And I’m skeptical if he is actually a game developer,” he added, and when asked whether there was any chance the game is Metal Gear-releated, continued with:

“Definitely still a chance, once you see the interview a bit more will become clear.”

Spike TV’s Geoff Keighley, who hosts the VGAs, where the The Phantom Pain was revealed, tweeted that he’s off “to interview Moby Dick Studio Head CEO Joakim Mogren” today.

“The Mogren interview will be on GTTV this Thurs night. He said he has something new to show me,” he added.

Everyone’s very interested in The Phantom Pain both for its highly unusual debut trailer and the fact that its developer has been so mysterious.

There’s quite a lot to suggest that The Phantom Pain is, if not an in-house Kojima Productions project, then at the very least a Konami-funded spin-off.

We’re all going to be slightly disappointed if all the conspiracy theories are wrong, because they’re a heck of a lot of fun. But it looks ballin‘, whatever it is. Refresh yourself with the alternate trailer below.

It’s being said on Twitter it’s a next-gen title, but the studio’s website shows Xbox 360 and PS3 logos, so while it could be a next-gen title, we’ll just stick with current offerings for now.

There was a lot of buzz on Twitter from people at the show, who seem to think this is a Metal Gear game – or at least from Kojima who just so happened to be sitting in the audience.

The studio, which is located in Stockholm, was founded by Joakim Mogre. And, of course, the Internet is theorizing that “Joakim” is an anagram of “Kojima” and others point out that the last name “Mogren” is a football club in Montenegro which is where the opening of MGR: Revengeance takes place.

The, there’s journalist Alex Rubens who tweeted the following: “There are people in the VIP section of the Konami party wearing Phantom Pain/Moby Dick Studios t-shirts. They aren’t talking about anything. And no, they aren’t Swedish.”

Moby Dick describes itself as: “a game developing company operating out of Stockholm, Sweden… founded by CEO Joakim Mogren who after years of working for a major American developer brought together people out of various game studios from around the Scandinavian area to start something new. Our goal is to deliver an uncompromising, exciting and touching game experience to people all around the globe.

“We will shortly be disclosing information regarding our first major release.”

Speculate away, and have a look at the link to the GAF thread up there – which is chock-full of theories.